First Reading: Isaiah 63:7-14
7I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 8For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” And he became their Savior. 9In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. 10But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.11Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit, 12who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, 13who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. 14Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.
Psalm 111
1Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation. 2Great are the deeds of the Lord! they are studied by all who delight in them. 3His work is full of majesty and splendor, and his righteousness endures forever. 4He makes his marvelous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. 5He gives food to those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant. 6He has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the lands of the nations. 7The works of his hands are faithfulness and justice; all his commandments are sure. 8They stand fast forever and ever, because they are done in truth and equity. 9He sent redemption to his people; he commanded his covenant forever; holy and awesome is his Name. 10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding; his praise endures forever.
Second Reading: Galatians 4:4-7
4When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Gospel: Matthew 2:13-23
13When {the wise men} had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 18“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” 19But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Two Saviors
Every four years, for seven and a half centuries, heralds were sent out from Mount Olympus to announce a truce throughout the Greek-speaking world, so that athletes, dignitaries, and spectators could gather for the Olympic games. Beginning in 776 BC, thousands answered the call. Wars were put on hold. People travelled safely over hundreds of miles to the sacred mountain. There they would witness the greatest athletes of the age engage in footraces, field events, and various types of wrestling. The most brutal was called the Pan-kra-ton, an almost no-holds-barred battle that ended only when one combatant slapped the ground in surrender.
The victors won incredible prizes, including annuities for life. The games, after all, were anything but amateur. Champions were immortalized in poetry. Statues were raised. Their names were etched in rolls of honor. Nothing prevented these sacred games from taking place. That is until 12 BC. The Roman civil wars that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar stretched resources so thin, it looked as if the games would be canceled! But then a savior of the Olympics came forward. He was acknowledged by other rulers throughout the Roman Empire as a great king.
He had the favor of the Emperor in Rome. Statues attesting to his glory were raised among the nations. His gardens were considered innovative, transforming arid desert into lush and verdant landscape. He was widely admired among the rich and powerful for his great architectural achievements, not the least of which was finishing a temple whose construction had been stalled for centuries, making it one of the great wonders of the ancient world. And he had the cash.
Herod the Great, king of Judea, was fabulously wealthy. His wealth was built on the backs of his tormented subjects, who hated him with a fierceness that didn’t fade with his death. Thanks to his generous financial gifts bankrolling the games, Herod the Great was hailed as the savior of the Olympics of 12 BC. He was awarded the unprecedented title of “President of the Games.” But Herod’s greatness was recognized only by his fellow rulers. The people over whom he reigned, Galileans and Judeans alike, feared and hated him. Paranoid and consumed with suspicion, Herod wasn’t above killing his own relatives to maintain power. As far as he was concerned, absolutely no one would replace him. A testament to his paranoia and brutal ways is recorded in Matthew chapter 2.
There’s only two times in scripture that a nation’s ruler has ordered innocent children to be killed. The first is recorded in Exodus chapter 1 when the Pharoah ordered all newborn male children be cast into the Nile. The second comes in today’s gospel passage when Herod orders the slaughter of innocent children because he feared one would grow up to be king. According to St. Matthew, the magi arrived from the east, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage” (Matthew 2:2). These astrologers, sometimes called kings, other times wisemen, and on occasion priests, spent their nights stargazing, interpreting the signs they saw. Though we don’t know exactly who they were or what they saw — and there are many theories — what they saw in the eastern skies compelled them to travel a great distance to Judea and to Jerusalem.
One of the most compelling stories (as described by John Mosley in his book The Christmas Star) revolved around an astonishing conjunction that occurred in August of 3 BC and repeated in February and May of 2 BC: Jupiter, the king planet, and Venus, the queen planet, appeared to touch each other. This happened near Regulus, the king star, which is part of the constellation Leo, the Lion, and was associated in the ancient world with the lion of Judah. Based on this, the Magi could have easily interpreted this to mean a great king would be born in Judea. And what more logical place could there have been for the Magi to seek that king but in the capital of Judea, Jerusalem?
Obviously, Herod’s court mystics missed the celestial sign completely, but then, they apparently were not star gazers. So, at the appearance of the Magi, the mystics had to think quickly when Herod asked where this new Messiah was to be born. No doubt, in fear of their paranoid and murderous king, they answered Herod’s question about where this newborn king would be found, by turning to a verse from the prophet Micah to draw Herod’s attention away from themselves and the holy city, to turn his wrath upon a small village a few miles away from Jerusalem.
Many Christmas scenes show the arrival of the magi, kneeling before the infant king, sometimes in the manger, though this most likely happened months after Jesus was born. We presume this because once Herod realized the Magi, having been warned in a dream not to return to Jerusalem but to go home a different way, were not going to bring him the location of the newborn king, he ordered the slaughter of all male children two years old and younger.
Although later Christian writers have suggested this meant the slaughter of thousands of children, the actual number is unknown and widely debated. Whether this number was 10,000 or as few as 20, one would have been too many. But God had plans: “an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt . . .’ ” (Matthew 2:13). This brings up an interesting observation; most of us don’t think of Jesus and His family as refugees, but that’s what they were — fleeing their home for an insecure future in a foreign land.
The prophet Isaiah foretold centuries before, the Messiah would be called Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting God, Almighty Father, Prince of Peace (9:2). And we can add one more to the list, refugee. Our Savior started life in a humble manger, and a short time later became Refugee Jesus. The other savior, Harod, wanted to kill Him. You can see a striking depiction of the flight into Egypt, as it’s called by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Instead of traversing the typical desert landscape, the holy family was forced to cross a body of water in a boat. There’s a boatman standing in the bow hurriedly pushing away from the shore. Mary, holding the infant Jesus, is entering the boat, with Joseph huddled below. An angel hovers over the family, as the family flees Herod’s soldiers. I wonder if this is the same angel Joseph listened to in his dreams? Joseph heard God speaking through an angel, listened to the warning, and acted. But why flee to Egypt?
To fulfill prophecy. Long before, the prophet Jeremiah warned the people against fleeing to Egypt, even though they faced the destruction of their nation and temple under the armed might of the Babylonians (Jeremiah 41:17, 42, ff). He reminded them that they had been slaves in Egypt. Egypt was the enemy. But times had changed. Egypt was part of the Roman empire. Some of God’s people not only went to Egypt, they thrived. Many of them became mercenaries, fighting for the Persians who were occupying Egypt. They lived on an island on the Nile River called El-ephan-tine. Some lived in Alexandria and became philosophers. They stayed, and they prospered.
No doubt Joseph knew about the colonies of Jewish people scattered throughout Egypt. Most likely he sought one out. As a refugee family, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus no doubt found themselves among fellow Jews in Egypt, but even so, they were not at all like the people they knew in Judea. Their Bethlehem accents and customs made them outsiders. People celebrated the great holidays, like Passover, very differently. From the very beginning, Jesus knew what it meant to be a stranger in a strange land. Then, Joseph listened again to God’s messenger, and moved his family back to Israel, bypassing Bethlehem because there was another Herod who ruled, and once again, to fulfill prophecy, the family took up residence in Nazareth, “so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that He would be called a Nazarene” (2:23b).
I wonder if Jesus was really ever allowed to get past His refugee status. Born in Bethlehem, stayed in Egypt for a period of time, and returns to a new town. He possibly had a mixture of customs and language inflections. This story reminds me of being in the military and moving several times over nearly three decades. I grew up in Arizona, Terry, I, and the girls lived in several states. I spent time in various countries in Europe, and the Middle East, before retiring here in North Carolina. Am I an Arizonan, a Carolinian, a Southerner, or simply a carpetbagger who now lives here in Gaston County? Did Jesus ever really fit in, even as an adult, in Nazareth? Remember when Jesus later preached in His hometown of Nazareth some questioned His identity. Who is this man? Isn’t He the carpenter’s son? He was rejected in his hometown, by His own people.
Part of what it meant for Jesus to become our Savior is that He shared our own restlessness, that comes from realizing we don’t have a home in this world anymore. Isaiah said this when he proclaimed “…So he became their Savior. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy, he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:8-9). He became their savior in all their distress. He became their savior in His distress. He became their savior because of His distress. He knows. Jesus knows what it means to be accepted and rejected.
One can see the child Jesus struggling because His accent is different than the Egyptian Jewish children. One can see Jesus struggling when they moved up to Galilee after the death of Herod the Great, living in Nazareth, where the other children tell him He talks funny. And I see why it was important, as Isaiah said, that God did not send an angel or messenger. As Isaiah said, “…his presence saved them. His love and pity lifted them up” (Isaiah 63:9). Jesus understands our sorrows because Jesus experienced them.
Which Savior do you want? How about the one who knows us? Who has been where we’ve been? Our distress is God’s distress. God’s solution was to come down and dwell with us and share our afflictions — including that of the refugee. The refugee Jesus is an essential part of who He is. He was a stranger in a strange land. There were Jews in Egypt, He was among His own. Yet they were not at all like His own.
Most of us don’t think of Jesus and His family as refugees, but that’s what they were — fleeing their home for an insecure future in a foreign land. Those who have been forced to abandon their homes and possessions — either permanently or temporarily — can find solace in learning that Jesus and His parents knew the refugee experience firsthand. Matthew told us that Jesus is Immanuel, ‘God-With-Us.’ God is with refugees. God is with all His faithful. Most of us have no personal experience as refugees.
But many of our ancestors came to the United States because they were escaping war or looking for work, and some were political or economic refugees. It’s likely that some of them came without any sort of official papers because, for much of our history, one simply arrived. Stop for a moment and think about your own family’s history and journey and let that thought help us in how we treat others, especially those who are fleeing oppression.
The great building achievements and wealth of the one ancient savior came at the expense of the people he ruled. As for Herod’s works, his gardens, even the temple, whose magnificent stones caused all — including the apostles — to stare in open-mouthed wonder, they would come to nothing. His statues were melted down. Only the stone pedestals remain. But you and I can share in the living legacy of our Savior, Jesus.
The Christmas season beckons with light and hope. Let us share this light, this hope, with those who share the condition of Jesus as refugee, as outsider, as one who doesn’t fit in for any variety of reasons. Let us share their distress as God has shared ours in the living presence of Emmanuel, God with us, Jesus, man of sorrows, Son of God.
Amen